Radio communications between air traffic control (“ATC”) and a commercial pilot frequently occur on a radio channel allowing a number of pilots operating in the area to hear the communications. Thus, the radio channel offers a “party-line” effect in that each pilot can monitor communications between ATC and pilots of surrounding aircraft.
Because all the pilots in a receiving area receive all communications, a mechanism has been defined to uniquely identify an aircraft. ATC communication is often directed to an aircraft by using a call sign. For commercial aircraft, the call sign may consist of a designator, which is the name of the aircraft operating agency, followed by a number, which is often the flight identification number. Thus, for example, a British Airways aircraft may be designated by the name “Speedbird.” If the flight number were, e.g., 123, then the call sign could be “Speedbird 123.” In other embodiments, the number may be different from the flight number. Commercial pilots are attuned to recognizing the call sign for their aircraft. The call sign for an aircraft may change from one flight to another because the flight number may change.
The flight number of the aircraft typically has a different designation, and the alphanumeric indication for the same flight may be represented as “BAW23” for British Airways Flight Number 23. Because the name of an airline may change or may sound confusingly similar to another airline in the context of voice based communications, the designation of the aircraft operator and the call sign may not be the same.
Pilots monitor ATC communication for flight instructions for not only their aircraft, but for instructions directed to surrounding aircraft. This allows pilots to maintain a situational awareness of surrounding aircraft and increase system safety. For example, by monitoring ATC communication a pilot may be aware of instructions directed to nearby aircraft instructing that aircraft to change heading. This allows the pilot to maintain awareness of where surrounding aircraft are, or on which heading they are on.
Pilots may be presented with a computer generated display of surrounding aircraft using equipment. Once such system is the cockpit display of traffic information (“CDTI”) display. This display shows where aircraft are currently positioned and their respective headings. Monitoring ATC communication provides the pilot with further information that is not displayed by the CDTI. However, monitoring ATC communication can be distracting to the pilot, and can interrupt or delay a mental activity that may be critical. If the pilot instead focuses on the current task, then the ATC instructions directing another aircraft to change course may be missed by the pilot. Another system representing surrounding aircraft is the traffic collision avoidance system (“TCAS”) that receives positioned information of aircraft and provides warnings of potential collisions.
It is with respect to these and other considerations that the disclosure herein is presented.